The other day as Zachary and I were collecting insects for his biology project he made a keen observation, “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”   We saw flowers that we had never noticed, bees by the dozen gently visiting one blossom then another, rocks and stones that have survived the suburbanization of ancient land.  “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”

Perhaps it is my focus on the Core Values of A&M United Methodist Church that caused me to see them in the Bible story of this day.  The Core Values for A&M United Methodist Church are Compassion, Conviction, Conversion, and Community.  Compassion is the call for us as a church to care wherever, whenever, and whoever.  Conviction is realizing that God has Divine expectations, a plan for our lives and for our church.  Conversion is the belief that God desires to transform our lives in such a way that we become new, becoming the butterfly that we were meant to be.  Community is the living out of our faith with one another, recognizing that God does not call people to be Lone Rangers in the faith.  Compassion, Conviction, Conversion and Community – these are the core values of A&M United Methodist Church. These are values that I saw when strolling down the Palm Sunday road this week.  The road is described in Luke 19:35-42.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” ³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

⁴¹As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.  In this passage Luke recorded for his readers a journey of purpose and passion.  Let us pray.

There are two ways to take a walk.  One way is to walk as Tammy and I walked the streets of ancient Rome only two weeks ago.  It was the morning that we were to meet Chelsea after class to catch a train to Venice.  We only had a about an hour to see Piazza Navona - where Caesar, uttered his last words, “Et tu, Brute”, the Forum - the center of commerce and justice in the first century empire, and the Coliseum – the entertainment venue for more than 500 years.  All this in one hour, dragging our suitcases for the train and one of us a bit lame from a torn tendon that will require surgery to repair it.  That is one way to take a walk.  Not the one I would recommend.  The other way is the way that Zachary described, “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.” Let’s walk that way this morning.  Let’s take a walk down the Palm Sunday Road and really look.  “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”

On this road you can see the Christ of Compassion

Jesus’ entire ministry was characterized by compassion.  Even on his way to this road he stopped to ask what Bartimaeus wanted.  In Luke 18 Bartimaeus replied, “Lord, let me see again,” and he did.  In the beginning of chapter 19 Zacchaeus had climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus who had compassion on him, called him down from the tree and went to his house for a visit.  Now he has compassion on a crowd that had waited for so long to acknowledge him as the king, the Christ, the Messiah for whom they had anticipated for centuries.  He told two of his disciples to go into town and get him a donkey’s colt and bring it to him.  Most of us may not be able to see what this means, but when we read Zechariah 9:9 it becomes clear, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  If that’s not enough, the disciples take off their outer garments and threw them on the colt as a makeshift saddle and others threw their cloaks as a makeshift red carpet.  Way back in the days of Elisha, 700 years before Jesus walked this earth, there was a great king named Jehu, whose first recognition as a king came in II Kings 9:13, “Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king.’”  Jesus is telling his followers that he is The One and they rejoice joyfully and loudly.  “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”  I see a Christ of compassion who cares enough for the people that he reveals himself as the king of peace for whom they have waited.

Let’s take a walk down the Palm Sunday Road and really look. 

On this road you can see the Christ of Conviction

While the people were so excited by the procession leading from the Mount of Olives to the city of Jerusalem, some of the Pharisees were a little nervous.  They knew that they could not silence the crowd so they appealed to the man on the donkey, “Order your disciples to stop.”  But Jesus knew the divine plan.  Jesus lived with the conviction that God the Father, had a plan for his life and for the lives of his disciples.  On that day, the plan included praise and acknowledgement of the Christ who was riding on the foal of a donkey.  If they would not participate in this plan, the stones would.

Though this is an obvious figure of speech, “the stones would shout out” nature does seem to play a significant role in God’s relationship with us.  When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, the earth responded with thorns and thistles.  When the reign of God is realized, Isaiah wrote, bears and cows will get along and lions and lambs will dwell in peace.  Matthew reported a star that announced the birth of Jesus and an earthquake to summons his death.  Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote about a solar eclipse when Jesus was being crucified and Paul told the Romans that all of creation groans for redemption.  There is a conviction that God has a plan that includes you, me and all of creation.  “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”  We can see, as we journey down this road, the Christ of compassion who cares for the people, the Christ of conviction who has expectations for his followers.

On this road you can see the Christ of Conversion

Coming down the Palm Sunday road from the Mount of Olives the road heads kind of southwest just over the crest and about half way down the short path it bends to the north just enough for those walking it to catch a breathtaking view of the entire city.  It must have taken Jesus’ breath away for here we find one of only two times in the scriptures that Jesus weeps.  The other time was only a day or so earlier when he sat with friends who were grieving deeply.  Now it was his time to grieve.  He saw the city and wept over its unwillingness to change.  They refused to be converted and as such lost their chance for peace, shalom, salvation, enduring bliss.  They refused to have faith in the Prince of Peace mounted on a donkey, and chose to wait.

Every now and then I have missionaries of other religions come to my door and want to talk with me about their new revelation.  I explain to them that I am a United Methodist pastor.  It is an occupational hazard for me to listen to them.  I mean what would happen if I listened to them and said, “You know, you’re right”?  I would have to change vocations.

That’s probably the same thing that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were thinking, “We have too much to lose.  We’re doing OK.  The Romans leave us alone for the most part.  We have our Temple, with all its beauty.  We have our synagogues and all their laws.  We are fine just the way we are,” and they refused the newness that Jesus wished to bring to them as the incarnate God.  And the Christ of Conversion weeps.  “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”  This morning on this Palm Sunday Road we see the Christ of compassion caring for people, the Christ of conviction holding out divine expectations, the Christ of conversion seeking change to life as it could be.

On this road you can see the Christ of Community

There is a beautiful chapel, at this bend in the road called the Dominus Flevit Chapel.  It literally means, “The Lord wept.”  It is designed in the shape of a teardrop and has a pane glass window that faces the city of Jerusalem.  There inscribed are the words, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  Even today you can look out from that chapel and see a city that doesn’t get it.  The Dome of the Rock sits on top of where the Temple once stood, the Wailing Wall just below it.  Devout Jews and devout Muslims pass each other every day casting glances of suspicion and distrust.  Barbed wire divides the Palestinian neighborhoods from the Jewish population.  Soldiers armed with weapons are everywhere in sight.

Fred Craddock states that Jesus offered a lament and then defined a lament as “a voice of love and profound caring, a vision of what could have been and a grief over its loss.”  This is why Jesus wept.  He saw what could have been.  He saw community, people living together in peace.  He saw people loving God and loving neighbor, caring for the oppressed, leaving no one to fend for themselves.  He saw a community worshiping God in spirit and in truth.  He could see it all, but the shades were being pulled down, “now they are hidden from your eyes.”

I wonder if Jesus rounded the Welcome to Aggieland water tower and saw this church what his response would be.  I have to believe that of the two ways of walking Jesus would not walk so swiftly that he would not see it all.  He would walk slowly examining every heart.  He would see the potential in each one of us and in this church. “It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”

Let’s take a walk down the Palm Sunday Road today, but let us not walk too swiftly that we miss the Christ that is there.  Perhaps you will see as I have:

The Christ of Compassion – Caring for people who needed to celebrate.

The Christ of Conviction – Holding out divine expectations for each of us.

The Christ of Conversion – Yearning for us to change and become like him.

The Christ of Community – Seeing what could have been and what could be even now.

“It’s amazing how much you can see when you really look.”  Amen.